Tuesday's with Morrie; Wednesday's with the BoE

At our September 20th meeting, the Board voted unanimously to move our meeting date to Wednesdays (from Tuesdays) starting with the 2012-2013 school year.  Here is a link to my original post on the issue.  I would like to thank my fellow Board members for moving this idea forward for the next school year.

At that same September 20th meeting, Christine Yeres, editor and blogger for NewCastleNOW, asked if we would also move the meetings to New Castle Town Hall.  Without looking at the tape of the meeting, I recall my response was along the lines of, "That makes no sense whatsoever".

The more I think about it, it makes even less sense than that.  I think the reason Christine asked it was as a way to backdoor going live since the town is already set up for that and it would cost the district close to $10,000 to set up.

Here is why it makes no sense.  One of the issues that became clear during the Reader's Digest/Summit Greenfield development debate was that too many people equate the Town of New Castle with the Chappaqua Central School District.  We are very different.  First, the CCSD has a budget almost 3 times the Town's.  Second, only 90% of the people in the CCSD are also in the Town of New Castle.  Mt Pleasant is about 10% of the district.  Third, only about 80% of those in the Town of New Castle reside in the CCSD.

Second, we are the school district not in anyway associated with the Town.  We should be using district facilities.  Third, the most centrally located facility for residents of the CCSD is the Horace Greeley High School.  Town hall is at the south end of the district.  HGHS is also convenient for the Administration that has offices yards away from the meeting place.  Finally, HGHS give us the flexibility to change the location from the academic commons to the auditorium if there is a need based on attendance.

To me, the only issue remaining with meeting dates and locations is the production of the district calendar.  It was clear in April when this first came up and again the other night that producing the calendar is a burden for the PTA.  They are doing it as a favor at our request.  I do not think we should continue to place that burden on the PTA.  I strongly believe we should take that back in house.  It is not fair of us to burden an outside organization.  And, it brings control of the decision making with respect to the calendar 100% with the district.